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Saturday, May 30, 2015

I'm in the process of counting up the Lord of War/Super Heavies that are coming to BW9 but I haven't done yet so you'll have to wait a bit longer for more pie. In the meantime I had some packages arrive today which contained the prizes for the event. Of course the tournament itself has prizes of Element Games store credit (which are generously sponsored by Element Games). Whilst I'm on the subject, it might be a good time to place an order with them so they can have it for you on the day and you can save yourself some postage.

Anyway, here's what you can win for the raffle and spot prizes on the day:

Sorry for the poor photo but here's a list of what's on offer:

An Imperial Knight kit

Assassinorum: Execution Force boxed game

A F.A.T Mat (Grassy Plains)

The Imperial Knights codex

The Skitarii codex

Two boxes of Promethium Relay Pipes

Three Army Painter laser pointers (spot prizes)

I think you'll agree that's a pretty impressive stack of prizes right there! Remember entry into the raffle is included in your ticket so you're guaranteed to be in with a chance of winning something here. Since there are 7 prizes and 49 players (I'm not in the raffle - obviously), that's a 1/7 chance of winning something worth more than your ticket cost you!

The laser pointers will be given out a spot prizes for particular feats during each round. I'm also incredibly excited to announce that I also received the round prizes today:

It may not be clear from the pictures but these are custom made 10" Apocalyptic Blast templates with the 5" and 7" rings marked on them. I'd been trying to track down a 10" template for my Stompa (when it inevitably explodes) and since GW seem to have discontinued there's a trawled the interwebs in search of a suitable alternative. I stumbled across Foundations of War on eBay selling some other templates and contacted them to see if they'd be prepared to make me some.

I'd like to thank Tim from Foundations of War for doing such an excellent job on them. He's even etched the blog address into them without me mentioning it! I was worried they wouldn't arrive in time but Tim turned them around really quickly. I'd recommend getting in touch with him if you fancy some custom templates of your own. One of these will be given out in each round but you'll have to wait until the day itself to find out how you can win one. I'll be keeping the fourth one for myself I'm afraid!

Still to come is the post with the Lords of War pie charts and some shots of my Orks if I ever get them even close to finished! I hope you're looking forward to the event as much as I am!

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

I'd originally intended to post this up on Sunday evening but thanks to spending more time painting my house than my Orks for Blog Wars (more on that later) I've not had the chance. I actually made the pies on Sunday but they've been cooling on the window ledge since then.

I've now had every list in and checked them all. Thank you to everyone for submitting promptly. I want to say at this point that suggesting Battlescribe as a means of submission made things infinitely quicker than usual, something I was grateful of given there were 49 lists to look through from a wide range of source material. I think in future I might make Battlescribe format compulsory. I know it's a bit fiddly to use but it really makes a difference to my life!

Right, enough chat, bring on the pies!

The Pie Charts

As ever you can refresh your memory of previous crusty offerings from BW5, BW6, BW7 & BW8, Last time out was the first offering from 7th edition and sweet Jeebus there's been a lot of releases from GW in that time frame. If you include Cult Mechanicus (which isn't in play at BW9) there's been a whopping EIGHT books released since Blog Wars 8. That's ridiculous! There's never been more choice of source material for people to select from and with multiple detachments there's a near infinite variety of combinations. Anyway, looking back at BW8 we can see that over half of the armies came from three books (namely Eldar, Necrons and Space Wolves).

This time around Necrons and Eldar are still popular but Space Wolves have massively dropped in popularity with just 2 of the 50 players using them. Space Marines have made a big return to be the most popular choice. The big news is that whereas at BW8 there were 10 different factions for Primary, there are now 17 different factions represented including the new Skitarii. Correct me if I'm wrong but this is also the first time Sisters/Adepta Sororitas will be represented and I'm very pleased that there'll be another two Ork lists on top of mine. Indeed, when we factor in the second detachments there's every single book represented barring Khorne Daemonkin and Harlequins. Of course, there are some Khorne daemons around in the Daemon lists though.

What this means for those of you attending is that you'd have to be pretty unlucky to face the same faction twice. Not saying it won't happen but with a field of 50 and such a variety in the lists there's only a very small chance.

As you can see, there are bang on 50% of the lists that are only taking a single detachment. I find that quite surprising really but perhaps there are more people out there who prefer to keep it simple like me. It isn't difficult to spot that there's a big chunk of Imperial Knights. Of course, this is the first time I've allowed them in full force and I'm pleased to see that no-one has gone with more than 3 in a list (5 being the maximum at 1,850). We'll have to see how much it affects things and what the feedback is after the event before I can make a call on their presence at BW10. Otherwise there's again a big variety in the second detachments with little gems like the Inquisition and Assassins popping up.

Finally for the pies let's look at the Imperium vs. Xenos, although this time I've split Chaos off as a separate slice:

It's a near 50:50 split this time compared to BW8 where Xenos represented two thirds of the lists. When you look at it though there are a bewildering array of "Armies of the Imperium" now with Ad Mech being added.

Special Characters

As ever this is the crucial bit for Blog Wars as it's the thing that separates it from other tournaments. It's getting harder to enforce the rule though with SCs being deleted from books and newer armies not having access to any. My concern is that GW will move away from SCs as they try to move away from Finecast. Anyway, there are only 4 armies which have opted to be exempt from the SC rule (due to no options). Elsewhere there are clear favourites with Farsight featuring in 4 of the 5 Tau lists and Kor'Sarro Khan featuring heavily (hint: expect bikes-a-plenty). Nemesor Zahndrekh proves popular as well.

I've decided for next time to have a look through all of the characters that have been used at previous events and try to compile a list of the unsung heroes. I'll then offer some kind of incentive to field them to see if we can manage to have all of the SCs on that list represented at least once in the Blog Wars events. I don't think we're far off achieving that already frankly!

Attendance

Following on from last time around I thought I'd mention attendance again. Clearly selling 50 tickets is an all-time record for me and I'm flattered by the support. Let's look at the graph:

This is interesting because if we continue on the same gradient from BW6 to BW7 we arrive to the figure we've got for BW9. You may recall I was concerned when BW8 had such a comparatively low attendance. I'm now more convinced that it was down to releasing the tickets so late. There's always a smaller gap between the "Summer" event and the "Winter" one (4 months compared to 8) so I have less time to drum up enthusiasm. In order to try to prove this is the issue I'll be putting the BW10 tickets up for sale as soon after BW9 as I can.

Conclusion

I'm really excited about the latest event in the Blog Wars saga. Around two thirds of the players coming along have been to at least one event before so I'm hoping that despite the larger crowd, it'll still feel like a friendly atmosphere. I'm especially looking forward to all the different armies on display. It'll be the first time I've seen the Skitarii models and whilst others may not share my view I'm looking forward to seeing the 15 Imperial Knights that will be there. I know they're not necessarily to everyone's taste but the model has really grown on me. Having so many different armies represented is amazing and in these days of netlists and spam it's refreshing to see so much variety.

I really hope I get to play against something different. One thing's for sure. I've never seen more colours on these pies! See you all in 10 days!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Sunday, May 10, 2015

First off, I'm not the first person to review this game. There are already excellent reviews posted on Index Astartes and Tale of Painters (who include detailed unboxing shots). Anyway here's my take:

My friend Matt and I decided to spend Star Wars Day (May the 4th) gaming. After a bloody 40K battle between Space Wolves and Eldar we broke open Matt's brand new copy of Assassinorum: Execution Force. I'm sure you all know this by now but Execution Force is the new standalone game from Games Workshop. GW have had a turbulent relationship with their standalone games. Everyone knows Space Hulk is a huge success (and a brilliant game to boot) but Dreadfleet wasn't particularly well received by the gaming community.

To me at least, the reasons for this are clear. Both games feature some beautifully detailed exclusive miniatures but Dreadfleet's can't be used in any other game. Personally I like Dreadfleet as a change of pace from 40K every so often and as a way of introducing non-gamers to the fold. There's another problem with Dreadfleet though, the Fate deck. Having your game ruined by a crazy twist of "fate" is frustrating. Let's see if Execution Force has the same issues.

Models

Well clearly GW have no issues with transferable models with EF. The cultists, CSM and Sorcerer Lord are taken straight from other kits and are supplied with the conventional 40K bases. It does feel a little bit lazy (when you consider Space Hulk retails for a similar price and we get unique sculpts), but the selling point is the four stunning new assassin models. They're a great revision of the previous sculpts which are showing their age now. It does still seem a lot to pay for the models but when you consider GW will probably sell the assassins separately for £15 each (at least), the four of them plus the Chaos miniatures for £75 doesn't look as bad.

For the hobbyist there's plenty to be going on with on the painting front but without it feeling like a mammoth task. I'd like to get a set painted up myself amongst my many other projects! Anyway, once painted the whole game will look gorgeous.

It's a clever move by GW to package up the new assassin models in this manner. I'm sure if they'd been released individually they'd have still sold but by putting that bit more effort in they'll probably shift a big chunk with EF and still be able to release the separate kits at a later date. Well, that's assuming they have some sense and don't make them a limited edition thing (which the game itself is for some stupid reason). Even so, I'm happy to have a new game to play and I'm sure assassins fans will love the new sculpts.

Board and Cards

The board is beautifully detailed and owners of Space Hulk will be pleased to see the same sturdy looking laminated card used here. Minor niggle here, but it's a bit of a shame they didn't make the three pieces clip together to make the whole thing stay in place. I'm really nit-picking here but it did bother me a little.

The cards and tokens are cut from the same thick card and again feel durable. There's effectively a fate deck in the form of the Event cards but I'll get to them in the Rules bit of this review. Each assassin gets a stat card detailing all their relevant rules and the "renegades" forces get a card for each unit type. This is a nice touch and saves flicking back through the rule book constantly. Tokens are also provided to keep track of everything which I'm always a big fan of. Finally, there's the "room deck" which makes use of a really well thought out mechanic for making each and every game different. When the assassins reveal a previously unscouted room you draw it from the room deck and place the relevant renegades inside. I'll cover this more in the rules but it's a great idea.

The Rules (potential spoilers)

The most important thing to point out is that this is a co-operative game. I say this is important because if you aren't a fan of that kind of gameplay then this game isn't for you. For us though it's a refreshing change from the competitiveness we both exhibit when playing any other game. I love a good co-operative video game and it's nice to play a board game with the same ideas. I'm not pretending this is revolutionary or anything, I'm sure it's been done plenty of times but it's the first co-op board game I've played at least. Potentially you can play with up to 4 players each controlling an assassin each but I actually think 2 would be the maximum without it feeling like you were twiddling your thumbs a lot. If you did want 4 people involved it could be quite fun to play two games simultaneously and compete to see who can finish first (see, I can't help but make it competitive!).

Generally speaking the rules are excellent and feel really well thought out from first impressions at least. There weren't many times we needed to consult the rulebook and when we did we found answers pretty much every time. It's good that there aren't tons of rules, as this will make it more accessible to non-gamers and there's less to forget between games!

The basic mechanic is simple. The Sorcerer Lord is trying to enact some Chaos ritual (I didn't have time to read the fluff) and the assassins must try to kill him before he completes it. They have just 16 turns to do this (which doesn't feel like a lot). The only way into the temple is by teleporting in. To do this the assassins must scout out all the rooms and find both the teleportarium (good word!) and the control room. All the time they're doing this they must avoid Chaos patrols and each time they reveal a room more cultists are discovered. As sneaky as those assassins are they're still going to end up alerting patrols to their presence.

With that clock ticking away they need to move quickly but the faster they go the more difficult their task will become. Act too slowly though and the ritual will be completed ending the game. It's nice to have a definite end point and that pressure to do things quickly whilst being as stealthy as possible. Alert too many patrols and they're likely to receive more reinforcements or otherwise make things more difficult for the assassins.

It's hard to explain without playing the game but there's a genuine feeling of time pressure and a desire to complete the game whilst alerting the minimum number of renegades possible. Incidentally, for replayability GW have added in some "achievements" which up the difficulty and provide a challenge to keep you coming back. Not forever, but at least they're considered it. You could easily come up with your own challenges too.

Our Game (definite spoilers)
Sadly, with it being out first run through we weren't the quickest so we only got chance to have one run through. It was quite simply epic though. We sent the Calidus and Eversor assassins up the middle quickly to try and scout ahead whilst the slower Culexus and Vindicare would examine the closer rooms. We revealed the Teleportarium with just two rooms to spare. This meant there was a 50:50 chance the control room would be in a room near to our assassins or, if not, we'd need to send one back to the start to go into the only remaining unrevealed room. Sure enough what we feared happened and we were forced to send the Vindicare all the way back to the control room.

The event deck worked brilliantly with the events we revealed really feeling like they were building to a crescendo and adding to the tension. We had the other assassins poised ready to enter the teleportarium and the vindicare kept being delayed by the forces of the ritual preventing him from sprinting and shooting in successive turns. With the clock counting down he finally got to the control room and sent the other three assassins into the Temple of Shadows where three CSM and the Lord waited. The ritual continued to progress and it was only thanks to the presence of the Culexus that the Lord wasn't only woundable on a 7! On the 15th assassin turn we managed to wound the Lord once. In the final turn the Culexus took another wound and it was up to the Callidus to finish the job. She failed to hit but re-rolled thanks to the poisoned blades and killed the Lord with moments to spare. We still had the option of blowing up the Eversor so it wasn't quite our last roll of the dice but suffice to say we wanted to avoid it.

We were pleased to have finished the mission on the first play through and not only that but with all four assassins remaining alive. Perhaps we'd played a bit more cautiously than we could have by trying to keep alerts to a minimum but this made things even more tense towards the end. Perhaps it was just luck of the draw but the Event deck played out brilliantly with CSM only arriving in the first area towards the end. I can see potential for the Event deck to ruin the game, if we'd not had the Culexus with us then the Event card in the final turn would've made the Lord near invulnerable. I suppose that works though as a means to encourage you to use all of the assassins together and play to their individual strengths. Not just that but also to make you keep alerts to a minimum to reduce the risk of Events making things harder.

Conclusion
The co-operative side of the game really sets it apart from other GW offerings. Matt and I always enjoy playing 40K doubles together and being able to recreate that feeling of teamwork is excellent. I also like the idea of being able to play the game solo (sad I know) as an alternative to video games! The new assassin models are beautiful and I'm sure we'll see plenty of Execution Force games showing up on eBay minus the models (if they aren't there already).

You don't get tons for your money, there's no escaping that, but what you do get is well thought out which isn't something you can often say about a GW product. There's some innovative thinking here and there's no reason for the game to play out the same way twice. I'd urge those who might be put off by the reprint models to try to ignore it and give it a go. For once it's more about the gameplay than the models, again not something you can often say.

It's difficult to come to proper conclusions after just one game but I'm already looking forward to playing it again and it's persuaded me to buy my own copy. I'm not thrilled to have more models to add to the ever increasing pile of unpainted stuff but I'm prepared to make an exception. Perhaps that says it all. I'd recommend this game to anyone, even those who don't play 40K.

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Blog Wars 9 is a little less than five weeks away and GW is determined to make things more and more complicated with each passing week. There's therefore quite a lot to discuss before the event.

I'm keen not to restrict things too much because I hope that players will remember that Blog Wars is supposed to be a friendly event without the usual filthy lists. I've only ever had to return one list for being too dirty and I hope that I won't have to do it again. I'm not a fan of telling people what they can or can't use in their army but I'm conscious that some things just aren't much fun for anyone involved. Please make my job easier by writing your lists with the spirit of the event in mind. I have no problem with a strong list, just try to avoid particularly dirty combinations. Right onto a few things that I think need clarifying.

New Codices
In the old days there might be a single new book between each BW event. This time there's probably going to have been half a dozen or so (and counting). The new Imperial Knights book is confirmed for this Saturday and I'm going to make this the last new book that will be allowed at Blog Wars. At that point there'll be just two weeks before army submission so I'd prefer to avoid people needing to make last minute changes. Therefore if your army gets an update after this date (May 9th), but before the tournament, the old rules will still be in play. Similarly, any new factions released after May 9th will not be legal at Blog Wars 9.

I'll need to read through the Imperial Knights book at some point soon after it's release (I'm getting a copy anyway) to decide whether anything needs to change regarding their use. Unless I say otherwise they'll stay as they are though.

Whilst we're on the subject, codices without an option for a Special Character to act as Commander may still be used. A character must be nominated as the "Commander" and his death with still generate 100 extra VPs in game one, however, he will not receive Objective Secured in missions 2 and 3.

Detachments & Army Selection
From the multitude of emails I've been receiving I worry that the army selection criteria are a little bit overcomplicated. I think it would make sense to simplify the whole thing by saying that each army can have a maximum of two detachments but no detachment may be used more than once i.e. no double CAD etc. I think that makes things much easier to understand and frees up more options for people. You can still only have one Lord of War and/or Fortification in your army though and your "Commander" SC must still be in a CAD/Faction and it be your Primary. I'll update the BW9 page to reflect this unless I hear any strong objections.

I know this opens up more nasty combos but some were still possible with the old system and hopefully you guys will self-police a little bit when it comes to filth.

Invulnerable Saves & Re-rolls
Once again, I'd hope this won't be an issue at Blog Wars because I'd hope people would realise that a 2++ with re-roll isn't fun for anyone. However, just in case one slips through the net I'm going to say that a re-rolled Invulnerable Save is only passed on a roll of 4+. That means your unit is still pretty damn durable but your opponent should at least feel like they have a chance!

Invisibility
In its current form Invisibility is a bit daft, I think we can all agree. I therefore think it's reasonable to say that Invisibility simply reduces the BS of enemy units to 1. That means you can still fire blasts/templates and things that boost BS like markerlights will still be effective. I'm also going to rule that you can't cast Invisibility on a Super Heavy Vehicle or Gargantuan Monstrous Creature (or their variations). Having an invisible Wraithknight just isn't necessary.

Eldar Craftworlds
Well, GW really made my job tough with this one. There are some frankly ridiculous things in there such as jetbikes all with scatter lasers and Wraithknights full stop. Of course, there will always be some nasty combinations but again, I hope I can rely on people to be sensible rather than banning the Warhost completely.

Lords of War
As per the rules in Escalation, Lords of War (including those like Logan) will give up an extra VP for every full 3 wounds or hull points they suffer. This will hopefully mitigate the inclusion of Lords of War and give armies facing them a way of claiming points even when they aren't destroyed. Of course, in the first mission this will be in addition to the points scored from Blood Points.

Conclusion
As I've said above, I'll update the BW9 page now to reflect these things. Please please please comment if you strongly disagree and tell me why. I'd also like people to comment if there are any other issues I need to address. Finally, I want to thank everyone who's supported this event so far and got into the spirit of it by bringing something that's a bit different from the usual "netlists". Games Workshop may be making my job more and more difficult but hearing the positive feedback from people (just about) makes it worthwhile.